If asked the most common mistake people make when feeding their dogs a homemade diet, I’d have to say that it’s not adding calcium. This error is not only common, it’s also dangerous, especially for puppies, but for adult dogs as well when too little calcium is given long term. Giving an inappropriate amount of calcium (either too much or too little) can cause orthopedic problems in growing puppies, especially large-breed puppies during the first six months when they are growing the fastest. But giving too little calcium can lead to bone disease and more in adult dogs, too.
It’s not surprising to me that many people do not realize the importance of adding calcium when feeding a homemade diet. Most of the homemade diet recipes I’ve seen online make no mention of added calcium. I reviewed more than 30 books on homemade diets for WDJ some years ago.1 Of the 24 books I reviewed that were not exclusively about feeding a raw diet that includes bones, only 10 included adequate calcium guidelines!
Why Calcium is Important in Dog Nutrition
I’m aware that some people who feed home-prepared diets rely on annual blood tests to indicate whether their dogs are receiving enough calcium; they think that if their dogs’ blood calcium levels are normal, the dogs must be getting the right amount of calcium in their diet. Unfortunately, this is not true.
For both dogs and humans, the body must keep calcium levels in the blood within a specific range to prevent serious health issues, including loss of muscle control, seizures, and even death. Adult dogs are able to control their blood calcium levels by absorbing a greater or lesser percentage of dietary calcium, depending on the amount fed, though this can be impacted by the amount of vitamin D in the diet as well, as vitamin D promotes calcium absorption. Note that puppies do not have the ability to control their absorption of calcium before puberty, and thus can suffer the negative effects of too little or too much calcium and vitamin D very quickly.
Dogs (and humans) also control their blood calcium levels by storing calcium in bones, then drawing it back out when needed – when they aren’t getting enough calcium in their diet. When adult dogs are given too little calcium for long periods (like months), they develop a condition called nutritional secondary hyperparathyroidism. In this situation, the body produces excess parathyroid hormone to draw needed calcium from their bones, which can also result in elevated levels of phosphorus in the blood.
Parathyroid hormone is completely different from thyroid hormones; the name is given because the parathyroid glands are located adjacent to the thyroid glands. Parathyroid hormones are responsible for regulating calcium and phosphorus levels in the blood. Hyperparathyroidism (too much parathyroid hormone) can also be caused by a tumor on one of the parathyroid glands (primary hyperparathyroidism) or by advanced kidney disease (renal secondary hyperparathyroidism). Nutritional secondary hyperparathyroidism is usually linked to a deficiency of calcium, sometimes combined with too little vitamin D.
When the body produces too much parathyroid hormone, it causes demineralization of the bones, which may result in lameness, bone pain, swelling, stiffness or limping, not wanting to move, and even spontaneous fractures. Adult dogs may develop spinal deformities, loose teeth, or neurological signs. Puppies are more likely to develop deformities in their legs and joints that may leave them unable to walk normally. If the condition is not corrected quickly, it could lead to long-term orthopedic disorders.
Now that I have scared the pants off you about providing the right amount of calcium in your dog’s homemade diet – at least, I hope I did! – what kind of calcium should you add, and how much is the right amount?
When You DON’T Need to Add Calcium to Your Dog’s Food
Never add calcium to commercial diets that are “complete and balanced” – these already contain the right amount of calcium! Adding calcium to a “complete and balanced” diet would be particularly dangerous for large-breed puppies.
However, most homemade diets require added calcium with a few notable exceptions. DO NOT add calcium to a home-prepared diet if:
- You feed a raw diet that includes raw meaty bones (RMBs) — parts such as chicken and turkey necks where the bone is fully consumed. Bones are high in calcium and phosphorus; there’s no need to add calcium to a diet that includes at least 25 to 30 percent RMBs.
- You use a supplement that is especially designed to complete and balance a homemade diet, such as those made by Balance IT and Just Food For Dogs.
- You use a dog food “base mix,” such as those made by The Honest Kitchen and Sojo’s, that you combine with your own added protein source according to the product directions.
When using supplements or base mixes that promise to complete a homemade diet, make certain that the product includes a complete nutritional analysis showing appropriate amounts of calcium. Don’t accept the verbal assurances of the company’s owners or representatives, or those of pet food store employees; if they can’t or won’t provide you with complete nutritional analyses of their products, we would not rely on those products for anything more than an occasional meal.
Following Calcium Guidelines
With very few exceptions (see “When You Don’t Need to Add Calcium,” above), you need to add calcium to your dog’s homemade diet.
Calcium guidelines can be determined in several different ways, including the body weight of the dog, the dry matter percentage of the food, and the calories that the dog needs. Each has its own complications:
- Small dogs eat more and have higher nutritional needs for their weight than large dogs do, so you can’t use linear guidelines such as “give x amount per 10 pounds of body weight.” Any time you see linear feeding instructions, it’s a red flag that whoever is giving the instructions does not understand nutrition.
- The amount of moisture (water) in food can vary from about 10 percent or less in dry foods (kibble, dehydrated, freeze-dried) to 80 per percent or more in wet foods (canned, fresh, frozen, raw, cooked). You must convert the “as fed” food weight to dry matter (DM) in order to give guidelines based on how much food is fed. Dry matter percentages won’t change much when you convert from “as fed” for dry foods, but are usually three to five times as much as the “as fed” percentage for wet foods. Also, because we feed dogs less of high-fat, calorie-dense foods, adjustments need to be made for foods with more than 4,000 kcal/kg DM.
- Calculating nutritional requirements based on the number of calories your dog needs is the simplest method, but comes with some warnings as well. Caloric needs will vary based on your dog’s activity level, metabolism, and more. The right amount to feed will also be affected by how many calories your dog gets from treats, chews, leftovers, and other sources. In particular, inactive dogs who eat less food for their weight than would be expected should get most of their calories from a balanced diet in order to avoid nutritional deficiencies.
The National Research Council (NRC) issued updated nutritional guidelines for dogs in 2006. They recommend feeding adult dogs at least 1 mg of calcium per Calorie (kcal), which is the same as 1 gram (1,000 mg) per 1,000 kcal (Mcal).
The nutritional guidelines published by the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), which were finally modified in 2016 to reflect the latest NRC recommendations, increased this to 1.25 mg calcium/kcal (1.25 grams/Mcal).
On a dry matter basis, that’s 4 to 5 grams of calcium per kilogram of food on a dry matter basis, or 0.4 to 0.5 percent DM.
One other factor affects how much calcium your dog needs: phosphorus. There should always be at least as much calcium as phosphorus in the diet, up to twice as much for healthy dogs (or three times as much for dogs with kidney disease).
Most homemade diets that I’ve looked at have between 0.5 and 1.25 mg phosphorus per kcal, so giving 1.25 mg calcium per kcal will provide most dogs with an appropriate amount of calcium and a proper calcium:phosphorus ratio.
You will need to know how many calories your dog is likely to need, based on his ideal weight – not his actual weight. See Table I on the next page for the approximate amounts of calcium to add to homemade diets for dogs of various sizes and various activity levels in order to provide 1.25 mg of calcium per kcal. While nutrient needs don’t vary by activity level, dogs who eat more food need more calcium in order to balance out the amount of phosphorus in the diet.
At minimum, give the lowest amount of calcium shown for your dog’s ideal weight, even if you find that you need to feed fewer calories than shown to keep your dog at a proper, lean weight. If you must feed a lot less to help your dog lose weight or prevent your dog from gaining unwanted weight, it’s time to cut back on the number of calories your dog gets from other sources.
The amount of calcium you give does not need to be exact. It’s fine to give a little less or a little more calcium than shown. Most commercial diets for adult dogs that I’ve looked at have between 2 and 3 mg of calcium per kcal (diets designed for puppies or for “all life stages” will have even more). These diets also have an equivalently higher amount of phosphorus.
If you feed a diet that is part commercial, part homemade, adjust the calcium amounts shown in Table I appropriately. For example, if you feed half homemade, give half the amount of calcium shown.
Calcium for Puppies is Trickier
All of these guidelines are for adult dogs only. Puppies are trickier. NRC and AAFCO agree that puppies need at least 3 mg of calcium per Calorie (three times the amount of calcium that adult dogs need on a caloric basis).
The maximum amount of calcium that puppies should get is 4.5 mg per kcal (4.5 g/Mcal). It’s especially important not to give too much calcium to large-breed puppies during their first six months, as they are the group most likely to develop bone and joint abnormalities when given the wrong amount of calcium and phosphorus.
Puppies also need more phosphorus than adult dogs do. Never add plain calcium to a puppy’s homemade diet. Puppies need bone meal or some other type of supplement that provides both calcium and phosphorus, in order to provide the correct amount and ratio of calcium to phosphorus.
What Form of Calcium Should You Give Your Dog?
There are many forms of calcium that can be added to your home-prepared diet to meet your dog’s requirements. Any form of plain calcium, without other ingredients such as vitamin D, is fine. Dogs do need vitamin D, but since dogs need more calcium but not more vitamin D than people do, the amount of vitamin D that you would end up giving when using a combination product would be too high.
Calcium carbonate is usually the cheapest and the easiest to give, as it has more elemental calcium than most other calcium compounds, so you will need to add less powder to the food.
One easy way to provide calcium is to use eggshells that have been washed, dried, and ground to powder in a clean coffee grinder or blender. One large eggshell will make about one level teaspoon of eggshell powder weighing 5.5 grams; this will provide approximately 2,000 mg calcium:
1/8 teaspoon eggshell powder provides about 250 mg calcium
1/4 tsp = 500 mg
3⁄8 tsp = 750 mg
1/2 tsp = 1,000 mg
5/8 tsp = 1,250 mg
3/4 tsp = 1,500 mg
7⁄8 tsp = 1,750 mg
1 tsp = 2,000 mg
Some people like to give their dogs whole eggs with the shell, but I don’t think that’s a good way to ensure that your dog gets the right amount of calcium. The calcium in eggshells that have not been ground to powder may not be absorbed, particularly if you notice any bits of shell in your dog’s stool. If it is absorbed, you may end up giving too much calcium, especially to smaller dogs.
It’s okay to give a dog a whole egg, including the shell, as a treat on occasion, but when using eggshells to provide dietary calcium needed to balance out a homemade diet, it’s safest to grind the shells to a powder.
If you use a calcium supplement that also includes phosphorus, such as bone meal powder or dicalcium phosphate, you will have to give more calcium than if you use a plain calcium supplement in order to keep the calcium:phosphorus ratio in the proper range. To determine how much to give, you must first subtract the amount of phosphorus from the amount of calcium, then use the remaining amount of “extra” calcium to calculate how much to give based on Table I.
For example, if the bone meal supplement you’re using has 800 mg calcium and 300 mg phosphorus per teaspoon, there’s 500 mg “extra” calcium to use to calculate how much to give. If your dog needs 1,000 mg calcium added to his diet based on Table I, you would need to give two teaspoons of bone meal powder (500 mg extra calcium per teaspoon) in order to provide an appropriate amount of calcium while ensuring that the calcium:phosphorus ratio remains in the proper range.
Note that bone meal products designed for humans may not tell you the actual amount of calcium and phosphorus they provide, but will instead give you percentages of daily recommended values for adults.
For example, NOW Foods Bone Meal Powder says that 1 level teaspoon provides 80 percent of the recommended daily amount (RDA) for calcium, and 30 percent of the RDA for phosphorus. The RDA for both calcium and phosphorus for humans has been 1,000 mg (1 gram), so 80 percent would be 800 mg and 30 percent would be 300 mg.
This calculation will soon become more complicated, however, as the FDA recently increased these recommended amounts to 1,300 mg calcium and 1,250 mg phosphorus. New labels must reflect this change by July 2020. If NOW Foods does not change their formulation, the same product would now show that it provides 62 percent RDA for calcium and 24 percent RDA for phosphorus.
Many bone meal products provide about twice as much calcium as phosphorus. In this case, you can just double the calcium recommendations shown in Table I to determine how much to give.
If you use bone meal powder to provide calcium, look for brands that have been tested to show that they contain low levels of lead. Never use bone meal products intended for fertilizer.
Dolomite is another type of calcium supplement that may contain unacceptably high levels of lead.
Plant-based calcium supplements show considerable variety in the amount of lead they may contain; contact the company to ask for test results before using one of these supplements on a daily basis.
Again, these guidelines are only for dogs who are fed a homemade diet that lacks an adequate source of calcium, such as raw meaty bones or a supplement designed to balance a homemade diet. There’s a lot more to feeding a homemade diet that we’ll try to address in future articles, but getting the calcium right is a big step in the right direction of feeding a complete and balanced diet.
Mary Straus is the owner of DogAware.com. She and her mixed-breed, Willow, live in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Now my head is spinning! Very timely as I have recently began making a home prepared meal in the evenings. My 13# active 9-yo spayed female gets about 5 oz. food (2 oz. pureed veg, 3 oz. meat ), so I’ve been giving. 1/4 tsp. sterilized ground organic eggshell. Hope someone will jump in if this calculation is inadequate!
1/4 tsp eggshell powder provides approximately 500 mg calcium. That amount is adequate to meet NRC guidelines for a 13# dog and enough to balance out calcium and phosphorus for the amount of food fed, so you should be fine. Remember that the best homemade diets include red meat, poultry, fish, liver, eggs, dairy, vegetables and fruits, with grains and legumes optional, so if you’re missing any of those foods, you will need to give other supplements as well. You can read more in my article entitled Dishing on Diets in the September 2013 issue, also available on this site.
https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/food/dishing-on-diets/
Oky maine aa skta hu 😍
For the proper development of pup’s bones and teeth , calcium is an essential mineral in food for puppies. Yogurt is an excellent source of calcium. Can possibly include yogurt and milk with banana shake in puppy diet it will also helps to gain weight if you want to keep your dog vegan.
Coral, you could not feed enough yogurt (or other milk products) to even begin to provide all the calcium a puppy needs, and milk will make many dogs sick due to lactose intolerance. (And since when are milk and yogurt vegan??) Puppies in particular can be harmed by not getting appropriate amounts of calcium.
I have fed my dogs a cooked diet going back 15 years. I have read a lot, had sessions with a vet who specialized In dog nutrition, and read Lew Olsen’s books and monthly articles on canine nutrition, as well as any article I find in Whole Dog Journal. . I have not really figured out how to take wet weight and make it a dry weight to calculate. I have always added cleaned, dried, then pulverized egg shell as a calcium supplement along with Berte’s Natural’s Daily Blend for the rest of the vitamins and minerals. I have read using 1/2 tsp per pound of prepared food, split over two meals a day is a good average for adding calcium. So obviously with small dogs one might even be adding 1/8tsp per meal. This is in addition to having good variety of muscle meat, organ meat, dairy as part of the meal. Does that fit more or less with the DM amounts you recommend? This is only for adult dogs. My puppies start off with a prepared food, even a recommended puppy kibble, to make sure the everything is nutritious and I don’t know enough about puppy nutrition.
Rebecca, it sounds like you’re doing a good job. Adult dogs are much more resilient than puppies, so you can get away with broad guidelines such as what you suggest for calcium. Puppies are much more likely to be affected by incorrect amounts of calcium (either too little or too much) and also need added phosphorus rather than plain calcium, so it’s more important for them to be sure that you’re giving the right amounts. You may want to check out some other books, as Lew Olson only has experience with raw diets that include bones.
http://dogaware.com/diet/bookreviews.html
It should not be necessary to calculate dry matter amounts unless you’re trying to compare one type of food with another (especially when comparing dry foods to wet foods). I mention it above because it’s one of the ways that AAFCO states their calcium guidelines, but it’s easier to estimate calcium needs based on calories instead. When needed, you can see instructions here:
http://dogaware.com/articles/wdjseniordiets.html#percentages
How much calcium do I give for a 12 yr old 30lb and a Chihuahua 7lbs
Janice, per the chart included with my article, a 30-lb older dog needs around 775-1,000 mg calcium daily, so 1/2 tsp eggshell powder would be fine. An adult dog weighing 7 lbs would need around 300 mg calcium, or a bit more if your dog is quite active — give a little more than 1/8 tsp eggshell powder (or just give 1/4 tsp, which will be fine).
I have an 8 week female Shorky. How much ground egg shell should she receive daily?
Sylvia, there is so much more to feeding a puppy than just the right amount of calcium. In fact, you shouldn’t use eggshell to provide calcium to puppies. Instead, they should be getting bone meal or another calcium source that also includes phosphorus, in order to meet their higher phosphorus needs as well. If you want to feed a homemade diet to a puppy, I recommend that you get one of the following books and follow their recipes for puppies:
Dr. Becker’s Real Food for Healthy Dogs and Cats, by Beth Taylor and Karen Becker
Unlocking the Canine Ancestral Diet, by Steve Brown
Note that I do not recommend following recipes in any other books or online for puppies, as I have not found any others that are reliable.
Hi, my 47 lb smooth hair border collie eats a homemade diet and takes a vitamin supplement. The info on the supplement states guaranteed analysis per tab 3 grams. Calcium 2.8%, calcium (max)3.8%, phosphorus 2.5%. per instructions for supplemental nutrition support he takes 2 per day. Is this correct for him.
Virginia, unless a supplement is designed to balance out an incomplete homemade diet, I can guarantee that it will not do so. Most supplements made for dogs assume you are feeding a complete commercial diet. Think of it this way — if the supplement you have provided enough calcium for a dog on a homemade diet, that would be far too much for most dogs, who are already getting their calcium needs met through commercial diets.
BTW, I would also never use a supplement that provides nutritional information in this way, so that you have to do conversions to figure out how much you’re giving. In this case, 2.8%-3.8% of 3 grams is 0.084-0.114 grams, or 84-114 mg. If you’re giving two tablets per day, that comes to 168-228 mg daily. Your 47-lb dog needs at least 1,300 mg calcium daily, so this supplement is providing less than 20% of the amount needed. The same would be true for other nutrients likely to be missing in a homemade diet.
I have information on supplements and base mixes designed to balance a homemade diet, including Balance IT, here: http://dogaware.com/diet/dogfoodmixes.html
If you are cooking meat with bones (chicken) until the bones are soft and crumbly – does that affect how much calcium you need to supplement?
Jackie, if you are feeding bones then they do affect the amount of calcium that you need to supplement (if the bones are removed, then the amount of calcium needed does not change). It’s not easy to figure out how much calcium you’re giving with the bones — chicken breasts are mostly cartilage, while the larger bones in legs and thighs generally do not get soft enough to feed, so your dogs won’t be getting as much calcium from bones as they would if you fed a raw meaty bone diet. In general, I would say that any meal with a substantial amount of bone needs no additional calcium; if there’s some bone but not that much, maybe cut the calcium in half for that meal.
I have a 8wk staffie and cooking all his food I’ve done fresh minced turkey breast and fresh minced chicken with carrots sweet potatoes spinach asparagus green beans garden peas oats eggs and minced beef with the same veg mix do i need calcium i have ground egg shells and have a container full but i have not added any yet i also give him tin sardines mixed with rice and sweet potatoes once a week
Lynda, it is so hard for me to keep seeing comments like this, as my whole article is about answering your question. Yes, your pup needs calcium, but he also needs phosphorus — you must use a supplement that provides both calcium and phosphorus for puppies, such as bone meal, rather than eggshells, which provide only calcium. You also must get the amounts right or risk doing damage to your pup’s bones and joints. The younger your dog is, the faster he is growing, and so the more quickly any deficiencies or excesses will cause harm. Please put your puppy on a complete commercial diet approved for puppies or for all life stages until you have the time to design a proper diet for him. At 8 weeks, the harm you are doing by not supplementing proper amounts of calcium and phosphorus could be devastating to your dog’s health. See my book reviews for the only homemade diet books I recommend for use with puppies: https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/food/a-review-of-the-best-books-on-home-prepared-dog-food-diets-on-the-market/
Mary, it is so hard for me to keep seeing comments like THIS from you! Your blog was helpful, but very long and very confusing for first-timers. We are here because we want the best for our dogs, many of us have sick dogs that we are trying our best for. If you write a blog and maintain a site like this, you have to be prepared for comments and questions. I don’t think it’s necessary for you to get such a bad and hostile attitude towards people just desperate for clarification. I was very thankful for your article but as I scrolled down in the comments, I noticed your hostility and the way you talk down to people for asking questions – not to mention you almost scold people for doing the wrong thing! If you don’t like answering questions, either just IGNORE them, turn off commenting, or don’t maintain a website like this. You need to work on your empathy a bit, we all get crabby but taking it out on innocent concerned pet owners is just the wrong way to go about it. Take a hard look at how you talk to people. It really put me off exploring the rest of your site.
Chris, Mary is trying to save your dog puppy from developing brittle bones from the proper amount of calcium phosphate. Simply giving your pup calcium is a serious mistake. If Mary is passionate, it’s because this error in your puppy’s diet will prove to be catastrophic for your pet. Also, you need thicker skin if you thought Mary’s response was insensitive. You should feel fortunate that she cares enough to try to impress you to reread the article so you can fix your grave error.
I meant IMPROPER amount of calcium phosphate.
I continue to be surprised that so many commenters, without any shame at all, expect to have personalized recommendations deliver to them on a silver platter by someone who has already gone to the time and trouble to offer an informative and helpful article, which anyone here could benefit from by actually reading the words and doing the math. This person has provided a service already. She does not owe any of us anything. Stop being lazy and read the article. If you don’t understand, read it again. Tack it up on the front of your refrigerator and read it every day if you need to. Do the calculations yourself, they are basic and not rocket science. Be an adult. How is that for condescending? My thanks to Mary for an eye-opening presentation, and I will certainly take a closer look at what I’m doing with my own dog. And I will do it with my own brain, which works.
There is a whole lot of math going on here!
It’s not a quick read. Get out your pen and paper…calculator..
put on yer thinking cap (My age is showing)
You can figure this….just not as easily as you can open a bag of dry kibble.
My 14yo 7lb poodle has kidney disease. Don’t I need to make sure the calcium supplement has no phosphorous in it?
Monica, yest, you need to use a calcium supplement that does not include phosphorus if you’re feeding a homemade diet to a dog with kidney disease. Eggshell powder does not have phosphorus. You can also get veterinary recipes from Balance IT using their newer Canine-K Plus supplement (not their original Canine-K, which includes phosphorus) with your vet’s approval.
I have two Jack Russells – a 12 year old and. 6 year old. The 6 year old was diagnosed with a mast cell tumour and since then I have been feeding both of my pups home cooked food comprising of chicken breast, liver, vegetables with little or no carbs. I make either bone broth or chicken soup which I add to their food. Could you please help me with the amount of calcium in either grams or tsps that I should add to their food. The tablets are calcium citrate 600 mg per tablet. The 12 year old male dog weighs 25 lbs and the 6 year old female weighs approx 15 lbs. I have bought a bottle of calcium citrate tablets which I will grind up in my coffee grinder (dedicated for their meds). Thank you in advance.
Zenobia, I thought my article pretty much covered your question about calcium. According to the chart I provided, the dog weighing 25 lbs would get between 675 and 1,000 mg calcium (probably toward the lower end as an older dog is likely not that active) and the dog weighing 15 lbs would get between 450 and 650 mg. You could give them both 600 mg, though the older dog would be a little short. There’s no need to use calcium citrate; calcium carbonate is usually easier to work with (comes in powder form).
The diet you are feeding is not complete and is missing many nutrients. It would be better to get a recipe from Balance IT and use one of their supplements (which will also include calcium).
To the best of my knowledge, diet doesn’t affect mast cell tumors the same way it can affect other types of tumors. Mast cell tumors should be removed if possible, as removal is often curative. If the tumor cannot be removed or has already spread, than a low histamine diet might be helpful.
I have a 63 lb 20month old female Golden Retriever, I’m not certain about how much calcium I should give her daily. I bought calcium citrate for her but can’t do the math for how much I should give her daily? I just started preparing a homemade diet for her, so I’m new to this. I don’t know how much a mg is? I know teaspoons etc. I couldn’t figure out how to weigh a mg?
Alayne, you can’t weight a milligram (mg). The label should tell you how much calcium is in the supplement you bought, but if it’s a human supplement, it may show the amount of calcium as a percentage of the human adult daily requirement, rather than an amount in mg per teaspoon, requiring a conversion.
For example, NOW Foods Calcium Citrate shows that it provides 600 mg calcium per 1.5 level teaspoons of powder (3 grams), so no conversion needed: https://www.nowfoods.com/supplements/calcium-citrate-pure-powder
However, their Bone Meal product shows that 1 level teaspoon (2.8 grams) provides 80% of the Daily Value for Calcium. For that, you need to know the Daily Value used for calcium, which is 1,000 mg, so 80% would be 800 mg calcium per teaspoon.
https://www.nowfoods.com/supplements/bone-meal
Note that there is more calcium in calcium carbonate, meaning you would need to give less powder when using calcium carbonate than you do when using calcium citrate. NOW Foods Calcium Carbonate powder provides 600 mg calcium per 1/2 level teaspoon (1.7 grams): https://www.nowfoods.com/supplements/calcium-carbonate-powder
Hello Mary. Many thanks for this